Etiquette Lessons

Mostly through trial and error, I'm learning proper etiquette in Macedonia. Early on my fellow trainees and I caught on to taking off our shoes at the door when we enter any homes, including our own. I know lots of people do this in the states but I've yet to see a Macedonian household that doesn't have some sort of closet or rack or space near the doorways for shoes. When I was unpacking, I knew that I couldn't put my shoes on the floor so I tried having them on plastic bags on the floor of my room. My host mother took one look at them and then proceeded to start clearing out two shelves of what I call the "shoe closet" near our front door for my footwear.

Dining is another area that elicited some surprises. I know, all I do is talk about food but seriously, it's a big deal here. The main meal for most families here is lunch, which my family usually eats around 3 pm. I thought I would starve waiting that long but I've developed a system that works pretty well. I have some cereal in the morning, fruit during the breaks at school, and then the big lunch at 3 o'clock and snacks like popcorn, fruit, or cake in the evening. At lunch, we each have our own bowls for things like soup but if there's a salad (and their usually is) the typical approach is for everyone to dig into it in the center of the table. We also don't have bread plates (bread is possibly the most popular food here) but put it directly on the tablecloth. One of the biggest differences is that drinking does not correspond directly with eating here. For instance, I grab my own glass of water to have with lunch but most of the rest of the family doesn't have any beverage or possibly something like beer or rakija (the local brew) as they finish eating. One Macedonian told me that drinking while eating interferes with digestion. They do tend to be thin here so maybe that's the secret but I'm not totally convinced.

I'm writing this post at a local internet cafe as young boys (maybe 12-16 years old) shout at each other and play video games. The main difference from the states is 1) they aren't just playing from home and 2) several of them are smoking. I can't say this is very condusive to my writing and it's almost lunchtime so that's it for now.